


You Can Try to Take it Back

by Era_the_Outworlder



Series: Maybe, Someday, A Happy Ending [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Ambiguous Age, Angst, Anxiety, Bad Ending, Consider this a Neutral Ending, Depression, Frisk Uses Sign Language, Gen, I don't know what I'm doing, Multiple Genocide Run Attempts, Non-Binary Frisk, Not Beta Read, Other, POV Third Person, Past Character Death, Rating May Change, Selectively Mute Frisk, Spoilers, Tags May Change, Time Shenanigans, Unreliable memory, Wow I really put that major character death warning to use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-06 12:31:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5417186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Era_the_Outworlder/pseuds/Era_the_Outworlder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every time the human has come through the underground, it's ended in misery and death, eventually their own. But after Sans finally loses, Frisk forces a reset before Chara can face Asgore. Sans just knows that something weird is going on. His memory of other timelines is spotty at best, but he's certain he's never seen the kid like this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. ch. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note: The work skin is to add Comic Sans, Papyrus, and 8bitOperator fonts to dialogue, as well as the spacing effect. Turning it off may affect your experience. And there is now a corresponding Frisk story [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5557388/chapters/12818747).
> 
> So, yeah.... I haven't really written fanfiction before. Well, I have, but like 10 years ago. But something about this fandom (and Sans in particular) has really gotten under my skin. And I had this idea of one possible permutation of gameplay, where a player makes multiple No Mercy/Genocide Runs but never gets to The End because holy crap I can't get past Undyne the Undying I'll NEVER beat Sans. 
> 
> So, uh. Thanks, if you're reading this. Let me know what you think I got right and wrong, just... Gently? Cause I'm kind of an Alphys.  
> And if you think my rating is wrong or it needs different/more tags I'd be glad to listen. Cause I have no idea what I'm doing with those.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something starts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the support so far!  
> There's been a minor edit for possessive apostrophe use? Nothing important.

It was the sound of his brother's voice that woke him up. Sans lifted his head up long enough to look around, figure out where and when he was, before dropping it back down to the sill of the sentry station.. Part of him nagged that he should make use of the period while he still remembered the last timeline, but he couldn't quite get himself to care enough. Instead he leaned back in his chair and tried not to think about anything.

  
The knowledge that he was due to go out and greet the little bastard responsible for all of this prodded at him to get up and move, and he slouched further down in his seat in defiance of fate. Why should he bother? Little beast was going to come through anytime now and just ruin their lives again. He could take Pap and run. Hide. Except... Papyrus wasn't going to just leave his post, his friends. Not without an explanation. And it was hard enough to just not tell him anything, Sans'd be damned if the human was going to push him to straight up lying to his brother. And there was NO WAY he was gonna burden his brother with this shit. He'd been there and no.  He tried to just enjoy the fact that Papyrus was alive. He was alive. Wait. THEY were ALIVE. He had just- And now they- The timing was wrong- Confusion and fear slammed through him as he jumped up and wrenched himself through spacetime.

  
The next moment he was in the woods along the path leading from the Ruins, the one the kid ALWAYS came down. Why? What sick plan did they have this time? Because overlaid on top of the memories of his life up until this day, overlapping with the fading, slippery memories of so many RESETs, was the knowledge that he had lost. The human had RESET to the beginning before when Sans'd beat them, probably hoping that they could gain more power or weaken his resolve before facing him again. But the brat had WON this time, with a sucker-punch that Sans knew bitterly he wouldn't remember when it came around again. Had Asgore defeated them? It didn't feel likely but he couldn't think of any other possibility. He had no way to know unless they decided to tell him, and he was already losing track of the memories themselves as they faded dreamlike into the background of his mind.   

  
The feeling of having lost, having DIED, had him so shaken that he almost didn't notice the kid going by. They were so... Quiet. Did they always look this small when they first came out? Something was off, different, he knew that much. Could feel it in his bones. The timing was wrong, he should have had a few days... Had they LOADed? But he couldn't remember.  He left the cover of the trees to follow them, and stepped on that damn branch. Before the they could turn around- they had practically jumped out of their skin, that wasn't right,  what was going on?- Sans reached for a short-cut and pulled himself behind a tree, out of sight. _'why do i never remember that stick until after? heh. it's only NOT remembering it that sticks in my mind.'_ He shook his head, struck with the feeling that he was missing something important, and focused on the kid.

  
The human stood in the middle of the path, shivering and hugging their arms to their chest, a stick clutched tightly in one hand, bandage on their knee. Not the toy knife. Not the ribbon. Why hadn't they taken the knife? After the first time they'd found it, they'd never left it behind. As they continued on, looking scared and lost, Sans had a flash of an abandoned timeline.  
The kid had looked a lot like this. Scared, cold, alone. They had dust on their hands, but Sans had still made the effort to set them straight. They'd played along with Papyrus's antics. They'd made friends, even. They were doing all right, until Undyne... The tyke hadn't realized that they needed to run, so they just kept trying to talk her down. It hadn't worked, and Sans'd fallen asleep in Hotland and woken up back in Snowdin. Before he lost the memory completely, he had a feeling it  was the last good time they'd had.

  
A spark of hope fluttered in Sans's ribcage, and he found himself on the path without realizing he'd reached for it. He searched for the slightest hint of dust on the kid as the snow crunched underfoot. They froze at the sound of his approach.

  
"human," he said, voice hard to mask an emotion he REALLY didn't want to look too closely at, and paused, not certain what he was waiting for. "don't you know how to greet a new pal? turn around and shake my hand."

  
He stuck his left hand out, glad to see it not trembling when the kid turned to face him. Clean. There wasn't a speck of dust on the kid and- _'it ain't fair to change the rules so late in the game when i thought i had them figured out and why'd i think they looked so small they're at least as tall as me but so frail looking might have to work to keep my promise wouldn't that be hilar-'_

  
 The kid reached out and shook his hand, a small smile cracking up in a fit of breathy little laughs as the air whistled out of the whoopee-cushion. Sans's train of though derailed hard at the touch of the human's hand, and he rocked back on his heels as they used him to brace themselves upright, nearly doubled over in laughter.

  
Sans stared, dumbfounded. The human NEVER laughed at his jokes. At ANYTHING. Their expressions had been so flat he'd wondered if they were even capable of emotion. So why did this feel.. not just familiar, but right. Like this was how it always should have gone.

  
He let himself chuckle as their wheezey laughter started to trail off, eyesockets crinkling at the corners to turn the face his face always made into a real smile. He was just gonna have to ignore that 'deja-vu that wasn't' for a bit and play along.  
  



	2. ch. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are going great, until they aren't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the support so far! I wasn't expecting so much of a response so quick, when I'd never done anything like this.  
> Edited for a little formatting. Aaaaaaaand a second edit 'cause I messed up that word from the word search. You know the one.

The kid didn't say much, but they were a great audience. They clapped and giggled at even the worst of his jokes. Sans had worried that they would just walk through Papyrus's puzzles, but that didn't happen. He was glad that they'd gotten a human who liked puzzles this time.

They even tried to do the word search. The fact that they already had a pen to do it with felt weird; he had a feeling they'd never done that before, but it wasn't a big deal. Sans half-watched as they sat in the snow for a bit using their knee to write on. That itchy done-this-before-but-different feeling wouldn't go away, so even though he really wanted to like the kid, he couldn't. Not quite. There was too much shit he could feel but not remember right now for him to do that. He was considering just faking it to get by until things inevitably went bad. It probably wasn't the worst idea he'd ever had. He closed his eyes and sighed.

He didn't notice Papyrus turn and walk away. He didn't notice the human either until they were right in front of him, waving the word search at him and making a frustrated grumbling sound. It was that growl that brought him back from his thoughts, his eyes snapping open. The look on their face- he couldn't grace it with a description. They were holding the paper up, jabbing at one of the clues, 'giasfclfebrehber', and then the top line which read 'GIASFCLFUBREHBER'. That look the kid was giving him felt familiar and terrifying and it PISSED HIM OFF, and it must have showed in his eyes because suddenly the kid was backing away. Sans scraped a hand across his face, holding the other up in a placating gesture.

"hey buddy, cool down. it's on purpose, yeah, but it's not like that." He pretended he hadn't just been furious for reasons he didn't understand. He pretended like he hadn't just seen in the kid's eyes that a goofy, lazy, skeleton who was barely as tall as they were was the most terrifying thing they'd ever seen. And he thanked whatever gods there might be that his brother had already left and so hadn't seen what had just passed between them. "the only way to win is to realize you CAN'T win, and move on with your life," he muttered. "it's existential."

The human just stood there, emotions transparent on their face as looked from him to the paper: confusion, pain-

\- and understanding. They smiled at him and he turned away, unable to stand that look on their face any more than the other one. They both stood like that for a bit, neither one wanting to actually acknowledge the real problem. The human caved first, and turned on their heel to follow Papyrus.

While the human moved on the the next of Papyrus's traps, Sans took a shorter route back to the workshop in his home in Snowdin. There wasn't a lot that he could make carry over between timelines, but there was a small drawer in his workshop that seemed to be immune. It was frustrating that he couldn't remember exactly how it had gotten that way. That probably meant it was the product of another timeline, but he couldn't be certain. There were other things that couldn't really be remembered, and he deliberately turned his thoughts away from that and to the drawer. He checked it, and sure enough, right on top was a spiral bound notebook. He was glad he hadn't forgotten to put it back before facing off against the human.

The first couple pages were the last of his notes from working on the machine, written in a symbolic shorthand, and he skipped over those. He paced back and forth across the small lab, as he read his own notes. Each entry started with a time-date-location stamp in shorthand, which he realised after the first few had to be when and where he had 'woken up', with other notations to indicate LOADS and RESETS added later in a different colour. After a couple dozen full resets had been documented, a pattern had been established, and later entries reserved detailed retellings for deviations from the established pattern. He admired the dedication of his other selves, even as what he read made him sick. He set it aside before he'd even finished.

He didn't want to look at the most recent one, he had a good enough idea now why the kid made him uncomfortable. There were NO records of a timeline where the human wasn't a murderous psycho. If there had been any, he either hadn't bothered, or didn't have to chance, to record any of it. He flipped to his notes of the last recorded timeline, trying NOT to actually read it. It was a lot more detailed, like the early ones, but he didn't really look at it. He didn't want to know.

He looked deeper into the notes on the timeline before that. That one was basically just a list of monsters, with 'The Ruins' underlined in large shaky text at the top. No details, just names. There were a lot of entries like that. A perfunctory list of the lost. But this one had an addition at the bottom. 'trying something new'

Sans had a bad feeling about that, and had to force himself to move on to the next entry. He didn't look want to look at the number- they were really getting up there- but then, he didn't want to read this at all. Before anything else, it said 'guess they never were my friend' which was... confusing, but not important. As he read his own account of the deaths of the Canine Brigade, he started shaking. When he got partway through Shyren's death, he stopped. He couldn't. Because he knew what had happened. He knew what that "something new" was that he'd tried.

He'd taught them the power of betrayal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next couple chapters might be from Frisk's POV, dunno.  
> This muse is mighty unpredictable.  
> I might just write those on the side as a short companion work.  
> I'll try to get one more chapter up this week.  
> It will be SUCH a relief to not have to fight Sans about how much he remembers any more.


	3. ch. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a breakdown, and Paps to the rescue?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one felt harder yet easier to write. Harder in that I had trouble starting it cause I wanted to write about what Frisk is up to during this and the last chapter. Easier in that once I decided for sure that I was going to post the Frisk POV stuff as a separate work it came together pretty quick.
> 
> I suck at writing dialogue. This chapter actually has some.
> 
> Thanks for all the support so far though!

The realization that HE had CHANGED things- that across resets his actions had consequences after all- hit Sans like something large moving at high speeds. He sunk to the floor, knees to his chest as he pressed his back against the cabinet. The notebook was clutched tightly in one hand, paper crackling as it wrinkled and creased. A significant part of how he managed day to day had depended on the fact that it hadn't mattered if he didn't make an effort. It was okay if he did nothing, or made mistakes, because eventually the kid would reset and nothing he'd done would have mattered at all.

"is... is this my fault? all of it?" Bony fingers scraped across the top of his skull. That last run. From what little he'd read, it sure seemed like the extra over-the-top violence had been staged just for him. He'd left himself a message stating as much. He let out a mirthless chuckle at the thought. "heh. staged. like where Shyren d-" The word died unspoken, cut off by a choked sob as he remembered.

_The demon had already taken his brother, and now he was tailing them as they slaughtered their way through Waterfall. They'd found Shyren hiding in a darkened corner, but didn't attack. Instead, they approached slowly, hands empty and out to their sides. Even at a distance Sans could hear them singing, a plaintive melody with no words. There was a niggling familiarity about it, as if he'd heard it before in a dream, but he didn't question it because a lot of things the human did made him feel that way. They spent a while just trading tunes back and forth, and every moment Sans wanted to scream at Shyren to run. Before long, the few monsters still in Waterfall had gathered around the two singers. A stage was constructed, and out of nowhere the murderer had gone from carnage to concert. It pained Sans to watch from a distance, but he couldn't bring himself to interfere. He couldn't make himself try to save anyone if they were just going to get reset and die anyway._

_As the band mounted the stage- they'd picked up some instruments and a couple other members somehow- a chill ran down his spine. There was no way they could see him. Right? Not where he was. He hunched his shoulders and his hood fell further over his face, almost obscuring them from view. It just felt like they'd been staring straight at him. He kept trying to tell himself that. Their gaze swept the crowd as the band went into the first song. Shyren took the melody on most of the songs, while the other added strange wordless harmonies. The monsters in the audience seemed to have forgotten that there was a murderer up there on stage, but then most monsters were pretty quick to forgive and forget. Sans even caught himself tapping his foot to the beat, but the way the human seemed to keep looking directly at him put an end to that before long. When it seemed like the show was over, the small crowd screamed for an encore, chanting Shyren's name. Sans started to leave, thinking maybe the human wasn't completely evil- just seriously messed up. He walked to where he was certain nobody could see him, and had half pulled together a short-cut out of there when he noticed the crowd had gone silent._

Too caught up in the memory to be aware of his surroundings, Sans didn't notice that someone was pounding on the door to his workshop, or the pained noises slipping out from behind gritted teeth. The grating of bone on steel, wood, and tile as his magic lashed out at an enemy that wasn't there, all sounded as distant at the brief struggle playing out in his memory.

_Something was going on behind the stage curtain where all the band had disappeared to. Sans had gone back to find out what was going on, even as a cold pit of certainty formed in his non-existent guts, telling him he wasn't going to like it and should just go home. He approached the edge of the crowed just in time to see Shyren get shoved back out on stage by her bandmates. If all this was just over some stage fright and an encore Sans was going to feel a little dumb, but the look on the human's face when they came out from behind the curtain told him that it wasn't. They were staring straight at him, and he couldn't pretend it was just his imagination this time. You could say they were smiling, if you first took the smile and tortured in until it had no meaning any more. Shyren had just started singing a traditional monster ballad when the fiend motioned towards her, an object in their hand. Sans didn't see what it was, focused as he was on the human's face. But Shyren's song cut short with a confused little cry as she started to turn to dust, the human hitting true without ever turning their gaze from Sans._

As the memory started to break up and drift away like Shyren's body, a wave of noise rushed over the disoriented skeleton. There was a crashing, clanging noise, like a steel reinforced door might make as it was being forced open by a very worried brother. And pitiful choking sobs in a low and very familiar voice. He didn't even realise his eyes had been screwed shut until he opened them to look for the source of the crying. The sight of his tiny lab half destroyed made his breath catch, and that was what clued him in that HE was the one crying.  
The door frame finally gave up the fight with a groan and released the door which toppled over with a loud ringing sound. Sans didn't have a chance to come up with a jokey explanation for why the place was in ruins before he found himself swept up in a tight hug.

"REALLY SANS. IF YOU'RE NOT SATISFIED WITH THE LOOK OF THIS SPACE YOU SHOULD FIND A LESS DESTRUCTIVE WAY TO REDECORATE." Papyrus set his brother down carefully, taking in the damp streaks running down Sans's cheekbones, the way he was shaking, and how his breathing still wasn't steady. "AND MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU GET THE SUDDEN URGE TO REDECORATE LIKE THIS, YOU WILL TALK TO ME ABOUT IT?" he added, in a relatively subdued tone.

Sans stared at his brother. He thought he'd done a pretty fine job until then of hiding the fact that there was anything wrong besides him becoming such a lazybones. He didn't want Pap to worry about him any more than he already did. One eye squinted up at Papyrus, making his permanent smile look more like a lopsided grin.

"uh, sure thing bro. i'll grab you next time i get touchy-feely over carpets and upholstery." It certainly wasn't his best material, or his worst, but his tone was enough for Papyrus to groan over.

"UGH. I DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT WAS AND IT WAS STILL TERRIBLE!"

"you're still smiling."

"I AM NOT. I AM PRACTISING A NEW EXPRESSION THE HUMAN TAUGHT ME, IT IS CALLED A GRIMACE."  
Sans chuckled, relieved to have his brother well off the question of his emotional state. Even if he'd rather not hear about the human right now, that did bring up the question of where they were. He pushed back one of his sleeves and stared at the bones of his wrist. He made a mental note to maybe get a watch someday. "it must be about dinner time, right?" He started towards the door, hoping that Pap would get the hint. "i wonder what they're having?" He didn't, really, not after what'd just happened.

"OH. THAT'S EASY! I GAVE THEM A BOWL OF KIBBLE!"

Huh. "huh?"

"THAT'S WHY I WAS LOOKING FOR YOU. I HAVE CAPTURED THE HUMAN!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UGH. THE MORE I WRITE, THE LESS SANS WANTS TO LIKE THE HUMAN.   
> 


	4. ch. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A chat between Sans and Papyrus, and some things happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is super short. Life's been really rough and I've had a hard time writing anything. It's mostly dialogue, too, which I (think, anyway) I suck at.
> 
> I don't want to quit this, I'm just having a hard time. I lost a family member the day after Christams, and my longstanding emotional issues (depression and... apathy? a lack of emotional responses? inappropriate ones? w/e) have been kicking my butt. Maybe the trouble is that Sans's headspace is too much like my own? I dunno.
> 
> I will keep writing, but I think it's gonna be slow. I'm also working on Frisk's side of things, which mostly focuses on, well, them. So you'll get to see the things Sans missed while holed up in his workshop.  
> -____________________________________-

Papyrus was eager to show off his accomplishment, so Sans allowed himself to be dragged out of his ruined workshop and around to the garage, which had been converted to a sort of holding cell. Not that he wanted to go anywhere near them. He wanted to sleep, and forget. But neither of those things were likely to happen any time soon.

"hey bro?" One thing had him a little curious. "how'd you do it, anyway? capture the human, i mean."

"OH! IT WAS VERY EASY." Papyrus stopped, and Sans almost ran straight into him. The look on his face when he turned around was a mix of pride and... guilt? "THE HUMAN IS SURPRISINGLY WEAK! AND... CANNOT JUMP? I EVEN TOLD THEM THAT THEY SHOULD JUMP, BUT MAYBE THEY DIDN'T UNDERSTAND? OR MAYBE THEY WERE JUST SO SURPRISED AT THE POWER OF MY BLUE ATTACK THAT THEY COULDN'T REACT!"

Sans's browbone twitched upward. Since he had good anectdotal evidence that they were perfectly capable both of jumping and remembering what his own blue attacks were like, he doubted it. Not that he was telling his brother that. Instead, he chuckled. "maybe they were frozen in place by how cool your attacks were."

Papyrus groaned. "THAT MAY BE THE WORST COMPLIMENT I HAVE EVER RECEIVED!"

"so, did they... do anything?"

"NO! THEY JUST STOOD THERE! IT WAS WEIRD. EXCEPT FOR ONE TIME. I THINK... I THINK THEY WERE FLIRTING WITH ME. NOT THAT I BLAME THEM FOR BEING INTERESTED IN THE GREAT PAPYRUS! BUT I MIGHT HAVE READ THEIR SIGNING WRONG!"

Sans blinked slowly. "don't you mean "read the 'signs' wrong?" That had to be it, right?

"NOPE! THEY HUMAN TALKS WITH THEIR HANDS!" Papyrus was practically beaming, as a vague ache formed somewhere in Sans's ribcage. It'd been a long time since he'd known anyone who could do that. Long enough that he couldn't remember them. _'thats not why you don't remember but don't think about it, not right now'_

Papyrus turned to the garage door, unlocking it with a tiny flare of magic, and Sans allowed himself to be distracted by the reminder of how amazing his brother's magical control was. It didn't last long, as he remembered WHY they needed magic to unlock it from the outside.  
"uh, bro-"

"OH NO!" Papyrus wailed. "SOMEHOW THE HUMAN HAS MANAGED TO GET OUT OF THIS INESCAPABLE PRISON!" He whirled around to grab Sans, missing his mark and spinning several times before stopping himself with a mitt full of the smaller skeleton's jacket. "WE HAVE TO FIND THEM. WHAT IF THEY GET INTO TROUBLE? OR HURT? THEY ARE VERY WEAK, YOU KNOW."

Sans looked up at his brother's earnest, worried expression, and sighed. He couldn't say 'No' to that face. Besides, he had a promise to keep. And he was pretty sure he knew where they were going.

"alright. let's go find a human,"

 


	5. ch. 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The author writes themself into a corner, a very wonderfully awful joke is made, a bad time is had, and the author writes themself out again.  
> And it only took two months!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A heartfelt thank-you to everyone who has left kudos and comments! 
> 
> Haha sorry if the tone is kinda... whip-lash-y.

Even though checking this area first was his idea, Sans was still surprised to see the human huddling in the fog at the edge of town. Their back was turned, and he got the impression that they were searching for something before the fog got so thick it almost obscured them completely.  Papyrus must have spotted them too, because he suddenly dashed past, calling out to them.

"HUMAN, THERE YOU ARE! WE WERE VERY WORRIED ABOUT YOU WHEN WE DISCOVERED THAT YOU HAD ESCAPED." The human spun around, expression hard to read in the swirling mist, their hands moving too slow for him to recognise anything before Papyrus knelt down on the snowy ground and blocked his already limited view.

The heavy atmosphere muted the sound of his brother's voice, but Sans didn't strain to listen. Instead, as he slowly made his way over he was trying to reconcile what he knew about the human, the truth he'd known in his bones even as he tried to ignore it, with their actions since he'd woken up. The only thing that matched up at all was _that face_ the kid had made earlier. And even that was something he might have chalked up to a short temper or his own imagination, if it weren't for everything else.

The kid was looking pretty anxious when Sans stepped up next to Papyrus, who had stood up and was posing dramatically. Their hands stopped in mid-air in front of their chest as they met his gaze, body tense like they'd bolt if he so much as said 'boo'. 

"hey," he said instead. They didn't run, but they did wince, the sight of which caused a twinge of regret. He quickly rationalised it as not being used to seeing anybody afraid of him, since it couldn't have anything to do with how much they'd seemed to enjoy his company before.

The air filled with the staticky charge of magic as the human's soul emerged, a small candy-red heart that seemed to float right in front of their chest. Colours leached out of everything, throwing the world into stark contrast as the fog receded, silver-white wisps sketching out the rough rectangular space that the human's soul was restricted to. Only a very strong or very determined SOUL would be able to escape, and even then, only on their own "turn". And it would only dissipate completely when the monster that conjured it willed it... or there were no monster souls remaining within. 

"HUMAN! AS A SOON-TO-BE MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD, IT IS MY DUTY TO CAPTURE YOU AND SEE YOU SAFE UNTIL UNDYNE ARRIVES!"

The human noticeably flinched at the mention of the hot-headed captain of the Royal Guard, and Sans filed that away with all the other questions he suddenly wanted answers to.

Sans looked up at his brother and grunted as if to clear the throat he didn't, technically speaking, have. If his brother had any flaws, it was that he was so enthusiastic about EVERYTHING that he sometimes missed the little details. Sans just wasn't used to being one of those, and it left a bitter taste on his teeth.

"OH. SANS! YOU'RE... HERE?" Papyrus looked down at him, confused surprise warring with pride on his face. "HOW NOT-LAZY OF YOU! GOOD! YOU CAN WATCH MY EXPERT HUMAN-CAPTURING TECHNIQUE! NYE-HEH-HEH!!!"

Sans pulled his hands from his pockets and hid them behind his back, scuffing at the snow with his heel. A certain level of tomfoolery was required to keep up appearances, especially after he slipped so badly earlier. Besides, he'd been practising this one for a long time but had given up on ever using it. The look of horror on the human's face as he carefully detached his right fore-arm and slid it out of the sleeve of his jacket didn't hurt things either. Much.

"technically, i could have watched from the sidelines. but i figured that since i'm here, i could lend a hand." He pulled his left arm out from behind his back, carefully gripping his right by the radius and ulna and holding it up. As long as he maintained contact with it, his magic still flowed through it. If he let go... He'd learned _first-hand_ how that would go back that when he was young, dumb, and had the HP to risk it. 

He wiggled the fingers in his brother's face-

 _'jeez i'd forgotten how weird that feels_ '

-chuckling at the absolutely offended look Papyrus was giving him.

"SAAAAAAAAAANS! THAT IS GROSS! AND A PUN! THAT IS A GROSS PUN!"

A snort drew his attention to the side, and Sans turned to look at the source. The human's knuckles were pressed against their teeth, the corners of a smile visible just beyond the edges of their fist, obviously trying to suppress a laugh.

"ya gotta _hand_ it to my bro," he said, punctuating the line by gesturing at Papyrus with his "off" hand, "he calls 'em like he sees 'em."

Sans was pretty sure that Papyrus's groan could be heard all the way to New Home, and the kid looked like they were laughing pretty hard, even if he couldn't hear anything from them. It felt good, this moment, and for just a second he let himself forget. All the deja vu, buried memories, the notebook, his wrecked lab, all of it. 

But when the noise died down and he snapped his arm back in place with a loud pop, the human's subtle flinch brought it all back. This kid had probably heard his bones make considerably less pleasant sounds... and Papyrus's too. 

Sans watched warily as their soul jumped back and forth through the air. If he squinted, he could see a dull yellowish haze in front of them, four rectangles that the little heart swapped between. He knew this was part of the confrontation magic too, even if he'd never seen it (in this timeline) from this side. He wondered what kind of options they had, since he'd bet good money that it wasn't the same as what he had. Their soul settled in one place then disappeared, just for a moment, before reappearing higher in the air. As it shifted again he noticed how the humans body seemed to move in response to their soul. Or maybe their soul moved with the motion of their body. He had a feeling, or maybe it was a memory, that it was a bit of both.

The human was staring, eyes unfocused, face slack, and Sans felt a chill run down his spine at the familiarity of that expression. Then they blinked, meeting his stare briefly before dropping their gaze to the ground at their feet. In that short moment Sans had seen a depth of pain and despair that made about as much sense than everything else. Which was to say, none at all. It was like this was a whole different kid than the one he'd known in other timelines.

When their turn ended, Sans didn't even have to think about what he was going to do, which was exactly what he was certain the human just done. For one, this was still his brother's battle, and for two, he had questions. 

Questions he wasn't going to ask in front of Papyrus. Questions he was certain he hadn't tried to ask in other timelines, not that he thought the kid would have answered them. Questions he'd probably never bother to to ask if this whole thing didn't feel so WRONG. But he could get one answer right now.

Sans chuckled as he reached out for the command he wanted, focused intently on the human. "don't look at me, kid, this is still my bro's show." 

"INDEED. NYEH HEH HEH!"

*Check

The human's SOUL turned a deep blue and dropped to the ground like a rock, dragging them down to their knees. Small white bones sped along the ground towards it, larger bones following behind. Their hands were curled into fists, one of them wrapped around the stick they were carrying. As the first bone struck, they jolted back, a grimace of pain on their face. The tiny heart flickered dully as the second passed harmlessly through it.

' _neat trick_ ,' Sans thought as it turned solid again just in time for the third bone to strike, ' _but a baby bones could avoid this attack. why don't they?_ '

 

*HUMAN ATK 0 DEF 0 

*A LV 1 Human.

*It doesn't look very DETERMINED.

 

Well. Sans didn't know what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't that. As the human's SOUL wavered indecisively between their choices, he let himself relax a little. 

While the human made up their mind, Sans looked over his options. Some of the tricks up his sleeve were admittedly unfair. That was their whole point since he wasn't strong enough to take a Whimsum in a fair fight, but Paps wouldn't appreciate that kind of help. The kid already had his brother's BLUE effect on them, so that was out. No sense in CHECKing them again. He wanted this to be over with, but wasn't ready to SPARE them just yet. 

Was there a way to FIGHT... Without breaking his promise?

Sans prepared a bone attack.

The heart finally stilled and the kid stood and dug a Nice Cream out of their pocket, a watery smile playing across their features as they unwrapped it with shaking hands. The moment they finished eating it the shaking in their hands stopped and their posture seemed surer despite their soul dropping back to the ground.

"I KNOW IT MIGHT SEEM DIFFICULT, BUT I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU JUST HAVE TO TRY JUMPING!" Sans glanced over at Papyrus, who was smiling encouragingly at the human. Several seconds passed with nothing happening, and he looked again. Paps was staring at him now, a browbone arched in expectation. Right, he should say something too. He reached up to scratch the back of his head but cut the motion short when the human flinched. Jamming the offending hand back in his pocket, and frustrated by the conflicting emotions the kid's behaviour left him with, he fumbled for something to say.

"ya know, kid, my bro gives pretty good advice. you might try following it this time." It came out with the bitter tone of somebody who's seen good advice ignored over and over again, and Sans inwardly cringed. Not exactly a side he wanted his brother seeing, after all.

As attack-bones flew across the ground, he wondered why the kid still wasn't dodging. It was kind of painful to watch.

After the third one struck, their shoulders slumped in relief, apparently not noticing the barrage wasn't quite over. A very small bone was dragging itself slowly across the ground, steadily inching it's way towards their soul. It took a full minute for them to notice something was wrong and find the source, and Sans chuckled at the look of exasperated disbelief they gave him when the realization set in. The bone was only halfway to them. He'd worn himself out earlier, not that they knew that, and couldn't muster any real intent to harm them despite the things they'd done. Because they hadn't done any of those things, this once. Because he hated breaking promises almost as much as he hated making them. And because for a moment they'd felt like an old friend he didn't know he'd forgotten. As long as everybody walked away from this battle, he'd give them a chance to explain.

So he'd thrown out the smallest, slowest attack, one he didn't intend on landing whether they moved or not.

As the bone got closer, the soul gave a tiny hop, barely leaving the ground. But their face was suddenly flushed with fear as it jumped into the air and dove straight for the slow moving attack. Before it could make contact, Sans reached out and cradled the little blue soul with his magic, holding it in place just long enough to give the bone a little nudge to a further point along its world line. Just like that, it was several feet past and on its way out.

The moment he let go the soul moved towards the retreating bone and he had to reach out to hold it fast again. _'what the hell? do they have some kind of death-wish?'_   he couldn't help thinking as he felt the soul struggling to throw itself at his attack. As it fought against his magic, images came unbidden of a corridor filled with soft golden light, and he could almost hear the sickening thud of of the human colliding with the ceiling as he violently swung their soul into the air- 

Papyrus's hand was on his shoulder and the human was lying face down in the snow. Colour had returned to the the world. When had that happened? Sans shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs out of his skull, but everything felt fuzzy. He turned to look at his brother and the world seemed to move sickeningly out of sync. He wanted to crack a joke, tell a stupid pun, say ANYTHING to get the look of concern off that face.

Nothing came to mind.

"'s nothing. 'm fine." Oh, what a lie that was.

The phalanges gripping his shoulder squeezed gently before letting go.

"I do not know what is happening but it most assuredly does not look like nothing. And don't tell me you're 'fine,' I can see right through you." Papyrus's voice was was as quiet as Sans had ever heard it and guilt slammed through him. Turning away, he looked over at the human.

They hadn't stirred from the ground. Time was, for the moment, still moving forward. That meant they hadn't RESET or LOADED, so they had to still be alive, but it didn't make him feel any better. He just felt tired.

"take care of the kid, Paps. i'll see you at home." He waited until his brother was walking towards the fallen human before turning and taking a short-cut straight to his room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so not sure how I feel about this chapter. It kept going directions I hadn't intended... And took me almost 2 months to write because... I dunno. It was a real slog at points to keep going, and I was feeling pretty low on DETERMINATION. I felt like I'd written myself into a corner because I wanted battles to be more like in the game (and much fan-art and comics) which is kind of awkward to write so now I see why not many people do. And also because whoops Sans is here where he shouldn't be, because this timeline is borked.


	6. CHAPTER 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things end. Or they don't. It's a matter of perspective.

It was the sound of his brother's voice that woke him up. Sans lifted his head up long enough to look around, figure out where and when he was, before dropping it back down to the floor of his room.

Time was still moving forward.

That was a good thing, right?

Laying on the floor as he was gave him a splendid view of the garbage that was otherwise hidden by the bulk of his bed.  A faint "thwap" and the feel of cold air on his foot told him that his trash tornado had stolen one one of his slippers while he slept. He didn't care so much about that, but it did bring to mind the question of just how long he'd been out. The shortcut home must have drained the last of his magic, but he felt- not good, but not drained, either. While part of his mind debated the merits of ever getting off the floor, he tried to replay the events that led him to his current position.

He'd been in battle with the human, Papyrus at his side. They had no EXP. He had resolved to give them another chance. Then... nothingness. No, it wasn't nothing, just the echo of something, somewhere, someWHEN else. Followed by exhaustion, the kid on the ground. The look on his brother's face. Then real nothingness until he woke up.

Guilt burned through him and he couldn't even be certain why, though he could sure as hell guess. Once, when the world was young and he hadn't done this song and dance a hundred thousand times (that was a bit of an exaggeration but it sure felt that way) he'd had an almost perfectly infallible memory. So good it was a damned curse, making him remember things that had never happened, at least as far as anyone else was concerned. Almost everything before "Day Zero" was still perfectly clear. There were a couple of muddy spots, sure, likely caused by other temporal anomalies. Things his mind skittered away from in self defence.

His whole life- if you could call what he did living any more- since Day Zero had become one of those things. But his memories apparently weren't that keen on being forgotten, 'cause they kept coming back with a vengeance. Except when he wanted them to.

A soft tap on his door brought him out of his thoughts.

"Sans?"

Oh god NO.  It was Papyrus, but Sans could barely recognise that tiny broken sound as his brother's voice. If the guilt had been burning before, it was a conflagration set to reduce him to ash and dust, now. Struggling to his feet, his words turned into a garbled mess somewhere between his mind and the air but it was enough to keep Papyrus from walking away, and he heard the doorknob rattle.

"Brother!"

That soft sound was going to be the death of him. _'gotta... make things right somehow. shit,'_  Sans thought to himself as he shuffled to the door, stiff phalanges clumsily working to unlock it. Just how long HAD he been out?

The door swung hesitantly outward. It'd been ages (a few weeks? had it really only been a few weeks?) since Sans had last seen Papyrus out of his "battle body", but there he was in a t-shirt and shorts, looking more tired and dishevelled than Sans could ever remember seeing him. In the blink of an eye, Sans found himself lifted up in a bone-crushing hug, silently wishing he could promise never to put his brother through whatever had made him like this again.

He couldn't, though, and before long Papyrus was setting him down again.

"so-" his voice caught and he had to look away. "sorry bro. didn't mean to make you worry. guess i was _dead_ tired."

Automatically deflecting with a joke about death. GREAT JOB SANS. But either it worked or Papyrus was politely ignoring his terrible decision, because he just gave a heavy sigh before setting a bare hand on Sans's shoulder.

"ALL IS FORGIVEN BROTHER!" It wasn't quite up to his brother's standard volume, but it was an improvement, and the pain in his chest eased up a little. For a moment. "At least one of you is on your feet," Papyrus added with a sad little "nyeh".

"wha- bro. what?" Sans couldn't imagine who else his brother could be talking about. Well, he could but really didn't want to, so he didn't.

Papyrus turned away and leaned on the balcony railing overlooking the living room of their shared home. There was none of his usual boisterous confidence in his pose, and it pained Sans to see his brother like this. He reached out a hand before stuffing both of them into the pockets of his jacket and shuffling awkwardly out to stand next to him, carpet itching at the metatarsals of his bare foot. Below, a small form lie still on their couch, bundled in a purple blanket.

"papyrus. is... " Deep breath. Time was still moving forward. "is that the human?" Please be sleeping.

"THEY HAVEN'T MOVED IN FIVE DAYS. I AM WORRIED ABOUT THEM." Papyrus stood up straight, glancing briefly at Sans before returning his gaze to living room. "I HEALED THEIR INJURIES AFTER... YOU... LEFT." There was no accusation in his tone, just sadness, and that was maybe worse. "BUT!!! MAYBE THEY JUST WANTED TO SURPRISE YOU? AND ARE REALLY GOOD AT NOT MOVING??? THEY DID CONFIDE TO ME THAT YOU WERE THEIR SECOND FAVOURITE PERSON IN THE UNDERGROUND, RIGHT BEHIND THE GREAT PAPYRUS. NYEH HEH HEH!"

If they liked him so much, they sure had a funny way of showing it and Sans wasn't finding it very humerus.

The world tilted ninety degrees as he found himself caught up by one of his much taller brother's arms, fuzzy pink slipper tenaciously hanging on as they bounced two at a time down the stairs. In another time he might have taken a micro-nap, but it just made him a little ill now.

When the world righted itself, Sans was set firmly on his feet, staring at the purple lump on the couch. He could practically feel Papyrus vibrate with anticipation, but the perfect stillness of the blanket left him with a cold,  slimy feeling crawling up his spine.

The silence stretched out interminably. Sans tried to focus on the human's SOUL, to get some sort of read on their condition, but it was like trying to walk through a wall without a shortcut. It got him nowhere and was giving him a headache.

The quiet was broken by the rustle of cloth as Papyrus shifted his weight. "SANS," he mock-whispered, sounding almost his normal self, "MAYBE YOU SHOULD SAY SOMETHING, SO THAT THE HUMAN WILL KNOW YOU'RE HERE?"

Sans doubted it would help anything, but he'd fake it for Paps.

"uh, sure thing. 'something.' " The silence roared back in to smother his half-hearted joke. "hey, bro?" Sans finally managed to tear his eye sockets away from the still figure on the couch and looked up at his brother, a bead of sweat rolling down his skull. There was a visible tension in the taller skeleton as he fidgeted quietly. "could you... go get undyne? take your time. i think we oughta take them to the capital, but i've got some things i wanna say to 'em first. cou-could you do that for me?"

"GO GET UNDYNE SO THAT THE HUMAN HAS A PROPER ESCORT TO SEE THE KING? THAT'S A GREAT IDEA, SANS! I WILL DO THAT, AND YOU CAN GET THE HUMAN MOVING!" Shoulders squared,  energised now that he had a clear goal, Papyrus dashed up the stairs and into his room, returning a minute later in clean clothes. The moment he was out the door Sans turned around and slumped to the floor, leaning back against the front of the couch.

"hu- ki- buddy. look. we've both done a lot of things that we regret. you've especially done a lot of things that i regret." A broken laugh bubbled up from his chest, interrupting his train of thought, and when it subsided he took a little time to collect himself. "anyway. i'm. i'm sorry. for everything. you were too, weren't you? for all the other timelines? i think i just figured that out, and it's too late. heh. dunno if you can even hear me, wherever you are."

He let his skull drop back to the cushion of the couch, the blanket between him and the human cold on his bones.

"come back, pal. i don't remember being friends before today... but that doesn't mean we weren't, once." The words, once out, filled his soul with a deep ache that was enough to tell him he was right. "yeah. so just- wake up kiddo. or load. or hell, reset even and we can talk this out. please. come back, and we can make things right."

Time kept moving forward.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy April 1st? Heh. I'll be deciding in the next couple days whether I want to let this stand as the ending, edit it a bit and still end it here, or continue the story towards something happier. 
> 
> I never meant for it to be like this, but I didn't exactly go into this with a clear goal. 
> 
> (also, wth Paps how you bounce back so fast?) 
> 
> EDIT: FORMATTING GET


	7. hey buddy, cool down. it's not what you think. it's... it's...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time moves forward. The only was to live is to accept things and move on. Acceptance doesn't mean forgetting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the end I was too in love with the last chapter to nullify it completely. It will stand. Consider this... a neutral ending. 
> 
> If you have work skins turned off I cannot guarantee the appearance of parts of this chapter. Sorry. It took a while to figure out how to do the things I wanted to do, and in the end, CSS was the way to go. (Wattpad got a slightly different version that I do not like as much because of this.)

Sans insisted on carrying the human on foot all the way to New Home. Undyne had burst in trying to ask a million questions at once, but a solid glare and a few pointed glances in Papyrus's direction served to shut her up.

Throughout the trek she kept Papyrus distracted in conversation, for which Sans would be ever grateful.

He explained most of the story to Asgore when he asked for them to be interred with the other fallen humans. And if he held back a few details and fudged a few facts, well, there wasn't anyone else alive who knew the truth to call him out on it. Not even he knew where their soul had gone, so the lie that it had shattered and been destroyed upon their death was as likely to be the truth as not.

After a few weeks, Sans and Papyrus were pretty much back to their old routine. Sans woke from violent nightmares more nights than not, but an unspoken agreement formed between them not to overtly acknowledge the issue. The workshop door got boarded up and covered with siding, as if it had never been there. If he ever wanted to go in he didn't need a door, but there was no point in doing that. No point in even cleaning up the mess. Easier to just pretend nothing had been there.

Sans couldn't keep pretending to the lady behind the door that things were fine for long. She stopped answering when he knocked. He kept knocking for a long time. He hoped she was okay.

It took less than a year for Papyrus's cooking skills to improve enough that his spaghetti was not only edible, but good, and he branched out to other foodstuffs. Sans ate more meals at home, but only ones Papyrus made. He gradually spent less time at Grillby's, though he still stopped by to say "hi," a couple nights a month, just for old time's sake. The role of lazy comedian slowly settled back onto his tired bones. It was easier that way.

Undyne was in tears at the brother's house one day when Sans came home from slacking off at work. She hadn't been able to contact Alphys for almost a week.

Asgore put out a request for a new Royal Scientist. Papyrus suggested that Sans apply, knowing he used to like "that nerd stuff". He said he'd think about it. He didn't.

Time passed in the underground.

The nightmares faded, or at least got easier to bear. They never went away completely.

Eventually, the other monsters forgot about the odd little human.

Sans couldn't forget if he wanted to, even though it might have been easier.  


* * *

 

He didn't know why he was here, in his old workshop. Might have had something to do with the dream he'd startled awake from. It had been... years. So many years since that day that changed everything and nothing, but sometimes he still dreamt of it. The air was cold and stale, dust floating up from the ground with every step to dance in the feeble light of a single bare bulb.

As the lights of his eyes drifted back and forth across the small space, he realised he was looking for something. He wasn't sure what, but he WAS sure that the crawling sensation on his spine wouldn't leave until he'd found it. He slowly sifted through the wreckage, piling debris in the corner, burying the broken machine. Papyrus would be proud. Almost. It was certainly more cleaning than he'd done in a long time. When he was done, dusting off his hands on the front of his jacket, two things remained untouched: an open drawer barely hanging in its slot, and a crumpled notebook in the middle of the floor.

With a feeling of apprehension, he carefully reached down to pick up the old notebook. It was a little water damaged, snow had gotten in while the room had no door on, then melted and later evaporated after the entrance was sealed. He settled down on the cold floor, carefully peeling the pages apart where they had stuck together. The notes from the machine must have been written in a less waterproof ink than the rest; they were completely ruined. A soft feeling of regret washed over him. They- He'd never been able to get it to work. It probably never could have worked, anyway, so it wasn't that big a loss.

As he flipped back and forth through the pages, wondering what had driven the kid to do what they had, he almost missed the scrap of paper fluttering down to his lap. Catching the little scrap between two phalanges, he examined it closely. Something about it made it inside of his skull itch. It was no bigger than his thumb, but had obviously been the edge of the page on the binding side. There was a smear of ink on it, but as he looked closer, he realised it didn't match the notes from the machine or the records he'd kept of the timelines.

The itch turned into an ache.

He looked at the notebook again and it was like he'd never seen it before. Trapped in the warped metal coil were several thin and ragged strips of paper. Thumbing through the pages carefully, he looked for any sign of missing data. It was impossible to tell if any of the older notes were gone, they were all illegible. But the latter half was complete, so the older notes were the obvious answer but a feeling deep in his bones told him it had nothing to do with the pile of scrap metal in the corner.

Sans's attention turned towards the busted drawer. He'd carefully avoided looking in it when he was clearing that side of the room, but he hadn't questioned why at the time. He did now. Lurching to his feet, he quickly stepped over to examine it. The only thing left in it was a worn binder. He set the notebook on the cracked counter top and gingerly lifted the binder out. He... didn't remember this, and trying to think of where it came from only left him with the same fuzzy-headed sensation he got when he tried to remember what he'd done to the kid. Papyrus had told him, once, quietly, and that was the last they'd spoken on that night; it wasn't that he didn't know what he'd done, just that he couldn't remember.

The drawer stuck as he tried to slide it closed, and he gave up with a soft huff. It wasn't important. This thing in his hand was. He glanced around nervously, reminding himself that the room was sealed. That could be a good or bad thing, he knew. Good in that no one could get hurt if something in here made him lose himself... bad in that no one could help him find himself again if that happened. Closing his eye sockets, he took a deep breath and thumbed the binder open to somewhere near the middle. The distal phalange of his thumb caught on the edge of a plastic sleeve and his sockets snapped open. It was a photo album, the pages held fast by metal rings. He flipped to the front. Pics of him and Paps as baby bones. He turned the pages slowly, carefully. The two of them growing up. Holidays, birthdays, school. He didn't understand. Why were these buried down here? As they got older, a third monster started showing up regularly in photos of either Sans or Papyrus, but never both at the same time. Who was he? Looking at a photo of himself in cap and gown holding up a diploma, the strange monster's hand on his shoulder and face beaming proudly down at him, he tried to remember.

 

_Sans would have dodged the ceremony if it weren't for how bad Papyrus Gaster wanted to have photos of the occasion. The gown was itchy, the cap made his skull sweat, and he really wasn't one for listening to long speeches. Lectures, sure, but those were interesting. _

_The look on Papyrus Gaster's face when the photo was taken made it worth the trouble._

_\----_

_Something was wrong. He'd  done this experiment already, hadn't he? Where was all his research data? Shaking hands pushed him back from the terminal, his chair rolling smoothly across the linoleum. A voice called out to him, filling him with a sense of wrongness._ 'no, that's not how it goes.'

_A hand on his shoulder. Someone  Gaster's face looking down at him with concern.  
_

_"You're not looking so hot, man.   Go home, get some rest, alright?   We 'll hold down the fort.   See ya tomorrow." "You do not look well, Sans. I would suggest that you take the rest of the day off? We'll see you here tomorrow."   
_

\----

_    He had been working on this for more than a year..They had been working on this for more than a year.   
_

_There had been setbacks, sure, but nothing that couldn't be overcome._

_It would work this time._

_     The workshop was still and silent, no one would witness Sans's success or failure. It was probably better this way.The lab was crowded, every hand that had worked on the project was there to witness the result of their efforts. _

_ It felt like the world was holding its breath when Sans It felt like the world was holding its breath when W.D.  reached out and activated the machine. reached out and activated the machine._

_**There was a flash of light.** _

Sans shook his head to try to clear the painful doublethink out of his mind. Somehow the monster in the photo both was and wasn't there in his memories, other people sliding in to fill the space when his absence would have left too big a void.

The further he got into the album _,_ the more unfamiliar monsters he saw. Some of them looked like they could be related to folks he'd met around the Underground, but he didn't **know** any of them. His memories of them suffered the same strange replacement phenomenon as- that other monster. He wished he could muster the energy to be angry at the kid for making him relive the same few days until his memory was so scrambled that he'd forgotten he'd ever known these-  colleagues  friends-these people.

Instead he just sighed and turned another page. Empty. Empty. All the sleeves in the back half of the album looked to be empty until he got to the last one. It was puffy, like there was some sort of cushion inside, and it didn't take long to realise it was two pages taped together with something stuffed between them.

Hard bone wasn't exactly ideal for peeling tape, something he was pretty sure past-Sans had been counting on. Looking at how meticulously it was taped on three sides, he couldn't resist a soft chuckle as obviously he hadn't yet mastered the art of laziness when he'd done this.

"dunno why i'd go to all that effort to hide something, though, when i just as easily could've destroyed it. unless i wanted myself to find it. ha. if only i knew what i'd been thinking," he mused as he depressed the tabs at top and bottom, the biding rings snapping open loudly.

Once he had the pages free of the rings he set the binder down next to the notebook, freeing his hands to dig the folded up sheaf of tattered pages from the makeshift envelope. They were folded into thirds, the outside flap having "don't" scrawled on it in red pen.  
  
"sorry, other me, no can do." He unfolded it and started reading.

 

_ today, XX:XX _

_ wishing today i hadn't tossed my notes on the anomaly  keep losing little bits of time  or more accurately- everybody else does and i end up with a bunch of extras and a headache  _

_ ___, XX:XX _

_ this is getting pretty ridiculous- wrote this twice before i remembered it had to go back in the drawer kinda rusty _

_ ___, XX:XZ ~~~~ _

_ i think even papyrus is feeling it a little _

_ ___* _

_ at least it let us get a good night's sleep _

_ \--- _

_ a human came from the door to Home. the anomaly is a human. is that why she asked me to make that promise? cause she knew there was already a human in the underground?  
hey sans that's reading this. you should check into that. _

"sorry sans that wrote this, it's too late. she ain't talking to me anymore." The paper rustled in his hands.

_ there's dust on em but they seem like a good kid. pretty scared but it seems like theyre tryin. got good taste in bad jokes. had a ruff time with the dogs but they got through ok. seemed kinda relieved when papyrus decided against using the gauntlet- don't blame them. _

He hadn't been there for that this time. _  
_

_ \---- _

_ they talked papyrus into a date. this is gonna be golden. he's pretty excited about it, even if they had apparently already "friendzoned" him, enough that he doesn't seem to mind missing his chance to join the guard. good. _

That... The kid shared some of the blame but in the end it was his fault that none of that had even had the chance to happen. _  
_

_ \---- _

_ pap ended up being the one to turn them down. glad my bro's got another friend. they've been hanging around town, making friends with everybody. papyrus wants em to meet undyne. told him maybe that's not the best idea, but he wont hear it. well, unless they're gonna settle down here, they're gonna meet her eventually. hell, even that would just delay it.  
_

_ \----  
_

_ something's wrong. time keeps jumping around in waterfall.  
_

_ \---- _

_ damnit kid, why? _

 

Sans felt dampness sliding down his cheekbones.  If he'd just had this, would it have changed things? Would they all be somewhere else? Would Alph- He shook his head to shake off the what-ifs and turned to the next page. Looking at it he thought he understood why he'd let the resets bury the truth. The first couple entries on the second page described him and Papyrus trying to get through to the kid, but after they left Snowdin it was just like the entries still in his notebook. The remaining pages were the same, but one detail stood out.  
  
Once after he'd stopped them, he'd had time enough to come back and record it. Every other set ended before then, either because they hadn't made it that far or he hadn't had time before they reset. The fact that just once, it had taken them longer to come back, sparked a glimmer of hope in his soul.  
  
Well, if the kid still existed in a way that they could come back he NEEDED to be able to remember this.

He carefully placed the papers to the side and set about fixing the drawer. If he had any luck left at all it would still function if he could get it to close properly. Once he was satisfied with his repairs, he closed the rings of the photo album and placed it in the drawer.

If they never came back, maybe he'd work on solving the mystery of those pictures.

By the time he was done adding a new entry explaining everything that had happened this time around, earmarking it, and scribbling a note on the first ruined page directing himself to the most important details, he could hear Papyrus moving about the house. There wasn't much time before his brother would be trying to rouse his lazy bones out of bed. Sans tucked the recovered papers in behind the last entry and settled it all gently in the drawer before stepping back into his room to face the passing of another day.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This story isn't done. All endings are beginnings. There's still a happy ending left to get. I'm just REALLY SLOW.
> 
> Feel free to bother me on [my tumblr](http://theoutworlder.tumblr.com), cause I have one of those.


End file.
